External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during a telephonic conversation with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on Saturday discussed the issue of terrorism emanating from territory under Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Since it was the first telephonic talk with the German FM after her controversial Kashmir remarks, EAM made it a point to raise the issue of terrorism threatening the regional security and stressed on the need of greater global role in tackling the menace,” sources told The Daily Guardian. India wants Pakistan to take credible, verifiable, irreversible and sutained action against terrorism emanating from territories under its control. “Several key issues of regional and global importance were discussed between the two foreign ministers. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war was one of them,” sources said.
Diplomats are of the view that Pakistan cannot be given a clean chit on terrorism only because it has been dropped from grey list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently. Situation on ground needs to be assessed on regular basis to check whether Pakistan’s action against terrorism is really up to the mark or not, says a diplomat. Entire global community needs to keep a close watch over Pakistan based terror outfits, he added.
The Indo-Pacific and maritime security issues in view of growing China’s assertiveness also figured during the talks, sources added. India and Germany would continue to hold detailed discussions on these issues at various levels. The two countries would work in the direction of firming up deeper strategic alliance to deal with all security challenges, be it from terrorism or from any other force seeking to undermine territorial integrity of other countries.
Notably, this was the first conversation between Jaishankar and his German counterpart ever since she stirred controversy by raising the Jammu & Kashmir issue during a press conference. Earlier this month, Baerbock was holding a joint press conference with her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Berlin. While speaking to reporters, she abruptly mentioned the Kashmir issue. Advocating for the Kashmir issue, Baerbock advocated for the “peaceful” solution of the region with the help of the United Nations.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reacted sharply, stating, “All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature.” It underscored how India’s Jammu and Kashmir has been facing the brunt of terrorism for decades and added the situation is the same till now. Foreign nationals have been victims there, as also in other parts of India, MEA had said.
Responding to the joint Press Conference of the Foreign ministers of Germany and Pakistan regarding Jammu and Kashmir, India said that global community members have a crucial role to play in calling out international terrorism and stressed on the fact that the foreign nationals have been its victim too. “All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature. The Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has borne the brunt of such a terrorist campaign for decades. This continues till now. Foreign nationals have been victims there, as also in other parts of India.
